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Virtue versus vice

Cigarettes 0 (vg), BMI 25 (better), trash TV 1hr (bad). I used to be wicked but now Im good, says The Times columnist

by David Aaronovich

November 8 2005, 12:00am, The Times

A few years back the object that I wanted to possess again and again was a packet of Camels. The golden animal, the pyramid, the three palm trees, the absurd name, were so cool. It was a pleasure just to walk into a tobacconist’s and ask for them. To take off the Cellophane. To smoke the brand that Bogart smoked — before he died of lung cancer.

I recognised the selfsame feeling of desire, brought on by proximity to coolness, a few weeks ago in a shop in the West End. If I bought what was on display then, just as with the Camels, I would be associated with something neat. I would be enhanced. The place was Niketown, and the objects of desire were…